Jane's Addiction cancel tour after argument on stage for safety reasons | Jane's Addiction

Jane's Addiction have announced the cancellation of their current North American tour after an onstage altercation between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro during a performance in Boston on Friday night.

A statement on Navarro's Instagram, signed by Navarro and his bandmates Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins, read: “Due to an ongoing pattern of behavior and the mental health issues of our lead singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to cancel the current US tour. Our concern for his personal health and safety, as well as our own, leaves us with no alternative. We hope he finds the help he needs.”

Navarro said the band members “deeply regret” not being able to perform in front of their fans, but “we see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance every night. It breaks our hearts.”

The Guardian has contacted representatives for Farrell for comment.

Footage from the Boston concert shows Farrell shoving and punching Navarro before crew members restrain him and carry him off the stage, bringing the end of the show.

Farrell's wife Etty Lau later wrote on Instagram that the singer “felt the volume on stage was extremely high and his voice was drowned out by the band.”

She said he had also been suffering from a sore throat, and Farrell apologized to the audience at a New York concert earlier this week, saying: “There's something wrong with my voice. I suddenly can't get the notes right anymore.”

The renewed hiatus will disappoint fans who were looking forward to seeing the cast of the classic era of Jane Addiction reunited after decades apart. Avery returns to the cast this year for the first time since 1991, and Navarro is also back after a few years off due to Long Covid.

In a five-star review of the reunited line-up in London in May, the Guardian's Stevie Chick wrote: “Tonight they play rock, as much a beauty as a show of strength – always their trademark back then, but something they're missing on the nostalgic reunion tour. Yet now, with the classic line-up finally realigned, visibly excited to be in each other's company, and with new material in the pipeline, they haven't sounded so vibrant and alive for decades.”

The band had planned to play another 12 concerts in the US and Canada in the coming weeks.

Jane's Addiction formed in 1985 and their first two albums – which combined hard rock with an irreverent psychedelic energy – went platinum in the U.S. Their comeback in 2003, Strays, was a top 10 hit and was followed by The Great Escape Artist in 2011.